Recap: Grizzlies 111, Cavs 109 (Or, Caught In a Bear Trap Game)

Overview: The Cavaliers were unable to escape Memphis with a lackluster effort on Tuesday night, losing 111-109 in overtime. Mike Conley made the game-winning layup with three seconds left to play.

Cavs-Related Bullets:

Sigh. This is one of those games where you forget that 53 minutes of basketball occurred and just start ranting about the final few plays and their implications, but there was a lot more to this game than that.

The first half was really nice for the Cavaliers, especially on the offense ends. As Windhorst noted, the big story of the first half was how good of a job the Cavaliers did freeing up LeBron James off the ball. Seeing as to how LeBron is all but unstoppable when he catches in on the weak-side, this is a welcome development. 6 of LeBron’s 8 field goals in the first half came off of assists, and most of those were alley-oop finishes or opportunities right at the basket. Mo also tallied 7 assists in the first half because of this.

The third quarter did not go quite so well. When the first bucket of a quarter is Zach Randolph banging in a three, it’s a bad omen. LeBron wasn’t assisted on any of his baskets in the second quarter, the team started trying to force-feed Shaq, Rudy Gay got hot, and all of a sudden it was a tight game down the stretch.

Down the stretch, the Cavs got more than a little bit predictable. LeBron scored the team’s final 13 points (only using 9 possessions, for a TS% of 70%, and that includes the final 30-foot heave), but something has to happen to get more offensive balance, either with different guys initiating plays or guys focusing on getting open and hitting their shots rather than standing around and watching LeBron.

But, as excruciating as “LeISO” can be to watch last time, the defense down the stretch was much more of a problem. Memphis’ last 12 points of the fourth quarter came from 6 feet in or closer. On Memphis’ final play of regulation, LeBron James cut off Rudy Gay’s outside drive, then stared at him like he’d never seen anyone change direction after picking up the ball, while a rotating man was nowhere to be found. (It also looked a bit like LeBron was conceding an early MEM basket so that he would have a chance to hit a game-winner.)

In overtime, the Marc Gasol hit a 7-footer, Zach Randolph hit two free throws and a tough 17-footer, and then Lionel Hollins attacked Shaq on his last two possessions. First, he used Gasol to back-screen Delonte, and Shaq didn’t get above the screen, giving O.J. Mayo a look at a three. (Although Mayo deserves many props for hitting that one.) And on the Grizzlies’ final possession of the game, Shaq correctly sagged back when Mike Conley came on the pick-and-roll. Then he bit on a nice pull-up fake from Conley, got left at the free-throw line, and watched as Conley laid the ball in, as JJ Hickson rotated off of Zach Randolph too late to stop the shot. Not a great crunch-time defensive showing from the Cavs’ new starting frontcourt, and you hope Andy fouling out down the stretch will be a rare occurrence.

-The Cavs, as a team: 18 assists to 20 turnovers. That’s not going to get it done.

-The three new starters: a combined -31 in 75 minutes. The three starters from last year they replaced: +19 in in 85 minutes.

-Good night from the floor for Boobie, but his defense kept him off the court for most of the game.

-Before you say that 11 threes is too many for LeBron, consider that if he was taking those shots from midrange, his 4 makes would be the equivalent of 6, and the best midrange shooters in the league don’t average a 6-11 night from midrange. I don’t mind threes from LeBron so long as they’re decent looks and the situation calls for it.

-Delonte came back to earth tonight, with only 2 points on 5 shots. Even when he plays well, it’s apparent he doesn’t have his outside shot back yet, and he missed all three of his shots from outside of 20 feet tonight, including a wide-open corner three in overtime that would’ve been huge.

-Bottom line is this: these are the kind of losses you hope happen in December, rather than it really starts to count. The Cavs were AMAZING in tight games like this last season. What did it get the team? 2 of its 4 playoff losses were of the down-to-the wire, razor-thin, devastatingly winnable variety. As much as people like to talk about a game like this in November reveals a team’s “true soul,” or whatever, winning a game like this in December does not grant the team a magic cookie of intangibles that they get to give to invisible clutch elves in May and June. It’s just one more loss out of 82, even if it feels worse than that.

-The other good news: The Cavs get to try and wipe this taste out of their mouths in less than 24 hours against the Rockets. See you then.

-Also, I had to listen to this after the game to remind me that Grizzlies can, in fact, bring happiness and relaxation. (Note: I did say “listen” and not “watch,” as this video kinda creeps me out.)

The effort was just pitiful. I kept saying that to everyone who was not watching as I just could not believe how bad this team played. In the end, while I was not happy they lost, I couldn’t say I was disappointed either because they did not deserve to win.

I actually thought Shaq played one of his better games tonight. Obviously, people are going to kill him for his D on that last possession, and use that play to point out his shortcomings, but that’s really not fair. He finally realized that he had an advantage down low, and there was a stretch where he was abusing anyone guarding him. Of course, right after he figured it out, the team started going away from him, but I digress…

All in all, this game just had a weird feel to it, right from the start. Even when LeBron hit that three to go up 16, something just felt off, and I think that last play of regulation (Bron losing control, throwing up a wild shot) pretty much summed everything up.

What I find strange is that of the Cavs’ 6 losses, 5 are to teams that are currently under .500. Yet, they have a number of quality wins (including Cavs-killer Orlando).

This is an interesting reversal from last year, where the Cavs never seemed to lose to teams they shouldn’t lose to, but couldn’t win against the elite teams. To me, this says that this years’ Cavs team has greater overall talent and potential than last year’s … but are still struggling to play cohesively and consistently: not only from game to game, but from quarter to quarter.

The isolation plays for LeBron just kill me. No movement, no opportunity for a second chance, low percentage shot. I’d love to see the Cavs run their normal offense in crunch time just once.

Before the game I texted my buddy, calling this a classic trap game. With a better team awaiting in Houston the next night, it would be easy to overlook the Griz, and that if they do, Mayo, Gay, and Gasol will eat them alive. After the game I didn’t say I told you so, I just resent the same message.

P.S. It’s not Shaq’s fault Mike Brown had him on the floor at crunch time so they could exploit his biggest weakness…

I really expected Windy to come out in the post game with something about Lebron being sick. In the 4Q of this game he looked like he did in the 4Q of the Orlando series, when he had absolutely nothing in the tank. Even excluding that last play in regulation, there were the 2 hand offs from Mo at the top of the arc that were BOTH stolen, and I can’t remember seeing that happen outside of high school basketball. Not sure if it was lack of energy or effort, but he clearly wasn’t himself. Maybe credit just needs to go to Rudy Gay, but I agree with Colin– there was a weird feel to the game from the 2Q on.

What pissed me off the most was the last play. Conely used a pick, and was driving past Shaq. NOBODY came to rotate. JJ came late as he usually does. LeBron just kind of looked over and seemed content with letting this 6 footer make an uncontested layup to put them on top. I think he wanted this. I think he wanted to be down so he could make a game winner. Which is absolutely nuts when you think about the fact that LeBron worries more about his Sportscenter highlights the next day rather than actually playing basketball to win the game.

Of course, as you said, it’s more than just the last play, we lost the game in the 3rd quarter. But this trend is disturbing… although its not really anything new. When will LeBron take this game seriously?

Um to the person who’s saying that the cavs are better because they beat cav-killer orlando, you do realize they were without their 100 million dollar man. Cavs are one team that loves to beat up on injury-depleted teams, while dancing around like fools.

Another thing that really stuck out in this game was Lebron’s irritating “backpeddle from the top of the key all the way to halfcourt with less than 8 seconds on the clock…” He is a basketball genius and has a combination of speed, strength, size, and vision that may not be seen again for decades. But it is inexplicable that this bad habit of his has not been weeded out yet. I saw more of it last night than I can remember. John did an excellent job recently of pointing out the possibility that Lebron is afraid of limiting his own passing lanes, and is one of the reasons he doesn’t set up in the post as much as he eventually will. Maybe that’s why he continues to do this? He is basically giving the great defenses more time to neutralize any cutters, and is giving the bad defenses a crucial extra several seconds to pack it in the paint– which on a night like last night was all it took. Many nights, the touch on his midrange “junk game” can counter this. But in a game like last night, when he was cut off before paydirt or left with a sucky angle, it was death.

The thing that really irritated me was how obviously the Grizzlies were walling off the paint. They quite literally had 3 guys lined shoulder to shoulder in front of the rim, and Lebron just kept driving. He ended up with a horrible angle and an awkward shot that didn’t go. I know he’s been lambasted for passing to teammates in clutch situations before, but there had to have been a couple of open guys that he could have passed to.

As for that kharma crap… If the Bulls don’t want to get shown up, maybe they should play better. If they don’t like it, settle it on the court. Kharma had nothing to do with this, this was a complete lack of effort by the Cavs in letting a young, improving team outplay them.

On those two turnovers in a row in the backcourt: I’m not a basketball player, so maybe I just don’t get it. But when you have the ball and nobody is directly on you (Mo) why do you pass it to a guy who already has 2 defenders draped all over him? (Lebron) I realize he’s Lebron, but he’s double covered!

The Lineup: (Click for Author’s Archive)

Nate Smith is an Associate Editor. He grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, and moved to NE Ohio in 2000. He adopted the Cavs in 2003 and graduated from Kent State in 2009 with a BA in English. He can be contacted at oldseaminer@gmail.com or @oldseaminer on Twitter.

Tom Pestak is an Associate Editor. He's from the west side of Cleveland and lives and (mostly) dies by the success and (mostly) failures of his beloved teams. You can watch his fanaticism during Cavs games @tompestak.

Robert Attenweiler is a Staff Writer. Originally from OH, he's long made his home in NYC where he writes plays and screenplays (www.disgracedproductions.com) some of which end up being about Ohio, basketball or both. He has also written for The Classical and the blog Raising the Cadavalier. You can contact him at rattenweiler@gmail.com or @cadavalier.

Benjamin Werth is a Staff Writer. He was born in Cleveland and raised in Mentor, OH. He now lives in Germany where he is an opera singer and actor. He can be reached at blfwerth@gmail.com.

Cory Hughey is a Staff Writer. He grew up in Youngstown, the Gary, Indiana of Ohio. He graduated from Youngstown State in 2008 with a worthless telecommunications degree. He can be contacted at theleperfromwatts@yahoo.com or @coryhughey on Twitter.

David Wood is our Links Editor. He is a 2012 Graduate of Syracuse University with an English degree who loves bikes, beer, basketball, writing, and Rimbaud. He can be reached on Twitter: @nothingwood.

Mallory Factor is the voice of Cavs: The Podcast. By day Mallory works in fundraising and by night he runs a music business company. To see his music endeavors check out www.fivetracks.com. Hit him up at Malloryfactorii@gmail.com or @Malfii.

John Krolik is the Editor Emeritus of Cavs: The Blog. At present, he is pursuing a law degree at Tulane University. You can contact him at johnkrolik@gmail.com or @johnkrolik.

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